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Florida’s coronavirus cases kept ballooning, especially in the dense neighborhoods of Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Hospitals in Fort Myers and Naples begged for donations of masks and other protective equipment. Young people started to die. And still, Gov. Ron DeSantis resisted. The man entrusted with keeping many of the country’s grandparents safe did not want to dictate that all Floridians had to stay at home. What it took for Mr. DeSantis to change his mind on Wednesday and finally issue a statewide order were a phone call with President Trump and a grave reckoning. A day earlier, the White House had projected how many American lives might be lost — up to 240,000 — without a national commitment to immediate, drastic action in every state. (Mazzei and Haberman, 4/1)

Kaiser Health News: Under Pressure, Florida Governor Finally Orders Residents To Stay Home

For more than a week, DeSantis said a statewide order was unnecessary because many parts of the state ― particularly large swaths of central and northern Florida — had few if any cases. When asked about the issue Tuesday, the governor said he wasn’t issuing an order because he had not been told by the White House coronavirus task force that an order was necessary. (Galewitz, 4/1)

Florida, with over 6,700 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, was alone among states with large numbers of infections in not doing so. Mr. DeSantis said he reached the decision after consulting with President Trump’s coronavirus task force. “At this point, I think even though there’s a lot of places in Florida that have very low infection rates, it makes sense to make this move now,” Mr. DeSantis said. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, Nevada Gov. Stephen Sisolak, a Democrat, and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, made public similar orders. (Ansari, Dvorak and Hannon, 4/1)

Florida’s coronavirus test rates lag behind the national average. Its caseloads are exploding by the day. And a chorus of experts predict the state is on the cusp of a crippling contagion. It all became too much for Gov. Ron DeSantis to ignore Wednesday, when he finally announced a statewide shelter-in-place order to stop the spread of the disease — a reversal from his “targeted” approach that local governments should make their own decisions. (Caputo and Dixon, 4/1)

Four new states imposed sweeping stay-at-home directives on Wednesday in response to the coronavirus pandemic, putting over 80% of Americans under lockdown as the number of deaths in the United States nearly doubled in three days. The governors of Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Nevada each instituted the strict policies on a day when the death toll from COVID-19 shot up by 925 to more than 4,800 nationwide, with 214,000 confirmed cases, according to a Reuters tally. (Whitcomb, 4/1)

Twelve states have yet to issue stay-at-home orders to their residents despite a rising number of coronavirus cases and deaths across the country. The number of states that have yet to impose strict recommendations on people to stay at home is steadily decreasing, and those not doing so are likely to come under heavy pressure in the wake of new estimates from the Trump administration that as many as 240,000 people could die from the coronavirus even with heavy social distancing. (Marcos, 4/1)

Gov. Steve Sisolak issued a statewide stay-at-home order for Nevada’s 3 million residents Wednesday, joining 37 other states and several of America’s biggest cities in enacting a coronavirus quarantine that now extends to more than three-quarters of the U.S. population. The governor late in the day also activated the state National Guard, a move that enables the state to seek federal assistance to support the guard’s activities. Those activities include logistics around supply delivery and distribution. (Dentzer and Lochhead, 4/1)

"Blatant and egregious" violations of social distancing and isolation requirements ordered by Montana and Yellowstone County health officials could lead to arrests or citations. “I don’t want to prosecute any of my fellow residents for any of these violations,” said Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito during a Wednesday press conference. “But I took an oath to follow the law, and I will.”County health officer John Felton said officials have gotten reports of some people violating provisions of the stay-at-home order issued by Gov. Steve Bullock and other requirements put in place in Yellowstone County by Felton, who described stakes beyond fines or jail time. (Hoffman, 4/1)

Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Wednesday said that he thinks the federal government’s social distancing guidance will extend past the end of April, likely lengthening the period during which many Americans will be asked to stay at home to slow the spread of the coronavirus. “In my opinion, I think that in 30 days, we will still be telling the country in general that you need to practice these measures,” Adams told NBC’s “Today” show. (Forgey, 4/1)

Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Wednesday that the White House coronavirus guidelines should be interpreted as a national stay-at-home order. “My advice to America would be that these guidelines are a national stay-at-home order,” he said on NBC's "Today." (Moreno, 4/1)

The arts-and-crafts chain Hobby Lobby drew a rebuke on Wednesday from Colorado officials, who said the retailer was not complying with stay-at-home orders in the state and must immediately close its stores during the coronavirus outbreak. In a cease-and-desist letter to the company, W. Eric Kuhn, the senior assistant state attorney general, wrote that it had come to the attention of the Colorado Department of Health that Hobby Lobby had reopened its stores in the state this week. (Vigdor, 4/2)

The Grand Canyon will close due to concerns about the safety of employees and visitors during the coronavirus outbreak. The move follows pressure on National Park Service (NPS) officials from local officials and members of Congress. A Wednesday statement from the NPS said the Grand Canyon will be closed "until further notice." (Frazin, 4/1)

Mandatory social distancing works. The earlier the better, preliminary data from two weeks of stay-at-home orders in California and Washington show. Those states were the first to report community cases of covid-19 and also the first in the nation to mandate residents stay at home to keep physically apart. Analyses from academics and federal and local officials indicate those moves bought those communities precious time — and also may have “flattened the curve” of infections for the long haul. (Fowler, Kelly and Albergotti, 4/1)

When a retired janitor suddenly died in southern Georgia, crowds of relatives and friends flocked to a local funeral home and mourned together. Within weeks, their city was overrun by coronavirus cases. That cluster of coronavirus cases was linked to the funerals of 64-year-old Andrew J. Mitchell and another man, held in late February and early March, Dougherty County Council Chairman Chris Cohilas said. Albany, a city of roughly 75,000 people -- as well as Cohilas' county, where Albany is based -- is the latest example of how the virus has started disrupting smaller, more rural areas as much as the country's larger, urban cities. (Chavez, Barajas and Gallagher, 4/2)

The United States now leads the world by many measures of the coronavirus outbreak, whether it’s a dubious distinction like the largest number of confirmed cases or a more positive one, like total coronavirus tests. But the United States is one of the most populous nations in the world. It might lead these measures simply because of its size, not because there’s anything unique about its coronavirus outbreak or response. (Cohn, 4/2)